Serendipity
by Officer-Lunchbox-324B21
Summary: Gail and Holly meet as a junior and senior in high school. Could what begins as an inconvenient acquaintanceship to Gail possibly turn into something else and turn Gail's world upside down? AU. Will change to T in future chapters.
1. Nice Girls Finish First

**Hey guys! I've decided to start a new fic, almost entirely of my own creation. You'll see snippets from the actual show, but it will largely be based on my own imagination. The AUs with younger versions of the characters we love so dearly have always been my favorites, so I decided to try writing my own! I do not own the characters, etc. etc. I hope you all enjoy it! :) **

Gail squinted against the sun, one hand brimming her forehead as she scanned the other side of the track. It was a hot day in May, too hot, and she was getting more and more agitated as the minutes passed. Hearing the warning call for the 400 meter dash, she made her way grudgingly over to the start line and began to stretch.

"Terrible weather for a track meet, huh?" she heard someone to her left say. She ignored the voice and bent down to hold her toes, allowing her hamstrings a deep stretch. She hated when strangers tried to talk to her, let alone right as her race was about to start.

"Not so talkative? I get nervous before races, too," the voice came again.

As annoyed as Gail already was from being approached by a complete stranger, she was further aggravated by this girl's asinine assumption that she was _nervous_. She stood upright and shot a glare at the offending girl.

"I'm not _nervous_, I just hate this crap," she spat.

"Oh. Huh. Well I'm sure you'll learn to like it as time goes on," the girl said, all too cheerily. Gail looked back at her and was taken aback when she was met with a toothy grin displayed across the girl's face.

"I'm quitting on Monday," she stated, her tone flat. The girl just nodded and continued to smile. Gail felt like slapping that stupid smile right off her face. _What a freak_, Gail thought, as she turned away and continued to stretch.

She really didn't have time for this shit. She didn't want to run track in the first place. It was her stupid mother's idea. Something about preparing for the academy or some crap. Her entire life was centered around getting in shape for academy training and finishing at the top of her class. A Peck could achieve no less and it was expected of her to follow in the footsteps of her family. Now she had some annoying girl acting like she knew even the first thing about her.

Gail snapped out of her unpleasant reverie as the other runners began to get set into their blocks and shook her head to rid her mind of these thoughts. After jumping up and down a few times to get her muscles going, she stepped over her blocks and placed each foot carefully into place. She burdened her fingertips with the rest of her weight and waited for the gunshot.

**POW**! The pop of the gun rang in her ears as she launched herself off of the blocks and down her lane. She listened to the sound of her feet against the track and the crunch of the tiny pebbles underneath the rubber of her shoes. She established a rhythm between the thud of her strides and the inhale and exhale of her breath. She didn't much pay attention to anything else until halfway around the track, when the lanky, dark-haired cartoon of a girl darted past her.

Still annoyed by the girl's earlier antics, Gail picked her pace up to a full sprint. She'd be damned if this brunette barbie was going to beat her. Attempting to quiet the sound of her shoes against the track so that the girl wouldn't hear her approaching, Gail continued to give it her all. With the quickened the tempo of her previous rhythm, she rounded the corner to the last 100 meters of the race.

75 meters, 50 meters, 20 meters..

Just as Gail was about to pull ahead, the girl glanced over her shoulder and pumped her long legs and arms with all her might for the last few meters, crossing the finish line a few feet ahead of Gail.

"DAMMIT!" Gail shouted through gritted teeth, throwing her arms down by her sides. Her breathing was more labored than she could ever remember it being, and she bent over, hands on her knees, to try to catch it.

Suddenly a hand appeared underneath her face. She followed the trail of the arm with her eyes until it rounded the curve of a shoulder and landed on the face of the same girl. She just didn't know when to quit.

"A little friendly competition is always good, right?" the girl said, extending her arm out even more toward Gail. "I'm Holly. Holly Stewart." The same dumb smile graced her face.

Gail took this opportunity to scrutinize the girl through narrowed eyes. She was tall, maybe 5'8" or 5'9". She was obviously athletic, her long, toned limbs glimmering with a thin layer of sweat. Her skin was tanned, and she had long hair that reminded Gail of dark chocolate swept back into an effortless ponytail. Only now did Gail realize that the girl was wearing the same uniform she was. They went to the same school.

Ignoring Holly's outstretched arm and her request for an introduction, she instead decided to focus on this new piece of information. "You go to East Grove High?" she asked, indicating the letters on Holly's chest.

"I do, I do," Holly confirmed, rocking back and forth on her heels.

"How come I haven't seen you around before?"

"Just transferred in, actually," Holly answered, "moved here from Michigan a couple weeks ago."

"Mmmm.." Gail gave a noncommittal grunt and nod of the head. _That's why she's so annoying_, Gail thought, _she's American_. Gail made to move off of the track, the next race about to start. Holly followed.

Gail walked faster.

Still, Holly kept pace.

"Hey, I never got that name of yours!" Holly shouted to her as she nearly began running to get away from her. She stopped and whirled around, causing Holly to retreat a few steps.

"Gail. My name is Gail." She turned on her heel and stalked off, muttering under her breath.

**Please let me know if you'd like to see more and think I should continue! Leave suggestions, praise, hate, whatever you like, in the comments if you wish. Thanks for reading! **


	2. A Boxed Lunch Affair

**Here it is, guys! Chapter 2! Voila! I hope you enjoy! :) **

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! _

The screeching of Gail's alarm clock caused her to shoot up in bed. "Fuck.." she grumbled, leaning over to slap her palm over the snooze button. She flopped back onto her bed and pulled the covers up over her head.

As promised, five minutes later, her alarm sounded again. She reached over to her nightstand and shut it off as she propped herself up into a sitting position, making sure that she didn't fall asleep again. She stretched and yawned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"GOOD MORNIIIIING!" a figure shouted as it busted into her room and launched itself onto her bed.

"Ugh.. STEVE!" she giggled in spite of her annoyance, using her feet to push him off the foot of her bed and onto the floor.

"Aaaah... ahhh!" he yelled as he waved his arms around frantically, trying unsuccessfully to stop himself from toppling to the floor. "Jerkface," he said, as he stood up and brushed himself off, "I was just coming in to tell you that breakfast is ready and you assault me?! Real nice, Gail, real nice." He puffed out his chest and stuck his nose up in the air with mock indignation and strode out of her room.

She shook her head, chuckling as she got out of bed. Her brother could be such a goofball. Ever since he came home from college, he was always giddy. She suspected that it had something to do with a girl, but he'd never say so.

She forced her feet to travel the short distance to her dresser and pulled on a pair of black shorts and a simple light blue v-neck tee that she knew brought out her eyes. She brushed her hair hastily into a messy ponytail, grabbed her backpack, and stopped in the bathroom to brush her teeth before she made her way downstairs.

"Oh, good morning, dear," her mother said, kissing the top of her head as she passed. "I'm going to be late if I don't leave now. Have a nice day, you two." With that, she was gone. Gail was used to her mother not being around very much, but she'd be lying if she said that it didn't bother her. Her father was barely home at all either for that matter, always staying late to finish up whatever it was that people on the force did. The difference was, he was always gone before Gail woke up, and usually came home just as Gail was settling down to go to sleep. She was used to having virtually no relationship with either of them, save for the usual prodding and prompting and comments about getting her ready to go to the academy and be yet another honorable and decorated Peck.

She sighed as she looked down at her pancakes, suddenly not very hungry at all.

"Whatsa matter, kiddo?" Steve asked, concern etched in his face.

"Huh?" She dragged herself out of her destructive thought pattern and looked up at her brother, not sure what he had said.

"I asked what was wrong. You look bummed out. It's kind of bringing me down. I'm trying to stay as happy as I can on a Monday morning." He ripped off a piece of his own pancake and threw it at her.

She laughed a humorless laugh, throwing the piece of food back at him, hitting him square in the face. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Just dreading the day of school ahead of me," she lied. "I'm not hungry though, so I'm just gonna head out." She grabbed her backpack off the counter and slung it over one shoulder, waving behind her as she trudged down the hallway and out the door.

* * *

_DING! DING! DING! DING!_

The overhead bell went off, signaling that the students had five minutes to get to their first class. Gail quickened her pace, needing to get all the way across the school to make it to history on time.

"Gail!" a voice said. Half a second later, a hand closed around her forearm, effectively stopping her in her tracks. She looked at the hand and then up into the face of the person it belonged to.

"Oh. It's _you_," Gail said, starting to turn around and keep walking.

"Hey, wait- I, uh. I'm new here, like I said. I don't really know anybody. I just saw you walking and I thought that maybe we could eat lunch together.. or something." Holly shifted uncomfortably when Gail didn't say anything for several moments.

You know what? Polly, was it?" Gail began, knowing full well that that wasn't her name, "I'm going to accept your offer mostly cause I feel bad for you, but also because when I see people eating alone, they look pitiful and it makes me very uncomfortable."

Holly didn't say anything, but instead looked at her with amusement, one corner of her mouth curving up into a half-smile. She let out a quiet laugh as she looked down at the ground and nodded. "Okay. I'll see you at 12:15 then." She waved and headed in the opposite direction. Gail chanced a glance up at the clock.

"Shit!" she whispered to herself before securing her backpack over her shoulder and bolting toward the stairs.

* * *

Four hours and three unbearably boring classes later, Gail threw her books unceremoniously into her bag and got the hell out of her chemistry classroom as quickly as possible. She was turning the corner to the cafeteria when she heard someone shout her name.

"Gail! Hey, Gail!" She turned to find her friend Kara swerving around people and pushing her way through the lunchtime crowd rush.

Out of breath and unable to speak quite yet, Kara simply shoved Gail and fell into step alongside her. When she finally caught her breath, she spoke again.

"What the hell, why didn't you wait for me today? We've only been meeting for lunch for the past five years..." Kara said, clearly annoyed.

"Oh, shit. Right. I forgot," Gail said bath flatly and unapologetically. She honestly had forgotten, and she really didn't care that Kara had to run to catch up. Even in regards to her friends, Gail really didn't have any sympathy or feel any remorse. She just didn't understand why people couldn't take care of themselves, especially at seventeen years old. She glanced over at Kara, who clearly wasn't satisfied with this explanation.

"Look, I'm not even sitting with you guys today, so I forgot. Simple as that."

"What?! You have other friends? Ha! Who are you sitting with?" Kara inquired, clearly amused at the thought of Gail making a new friend. She had a tough enough time making the friends that she'd had for years, let alone any new ones.

"It's none of your business. That right there is a perfect example of why I don't want to sit with your dumb ass today." Gail turned and walked to the opposite end of the cafeteria when they reached their usual table. Kara looked affronted, but Gail couldn't care less. She was sick of her "friends" acting like they were doing her a favor by being her friend.

She narrowed her eyes and scanned the far left corner of the cafeteria where all the loners sat. She assumed that's where Holly would be, and sure enough, she spotted her, smiling and waving like a maniac.

_Oh Jesus_, Gail thought, wondering if it wasn't too late to turn around and sit with her usual crowd. She glanced over her shoulder at her table and saw Kara sucking face with her boyfriend Eric. _Gross, nevermind_. She turned back toward Holly and shuffled over to her table. There were open textbooks spread across it with notes scribbled in the margins.

"Uhh.. I didn't realize that your friends.. Calculus.. Physics.. and French would be joining us this afternoon," Gail said sarcastically, flipping each of the textbooks closed to check the subject titles on the cover. She swiped her arm across the table to move all the textbooks to one side and set her lunch down, throwing her backpack to the ground.

Holly let out a small laugh. "My class is right down the hall, so I figured I could get in a few good minutes of studying before you got here," she stated by way of explanation.

"Ooooooo-kaaaay.." Gail drawled out, not bothering to comment on the absurdity of that statement. It was too easy, and Gail was too tired. "You know, when you assaulted me this morning, I almost didn't realize it was you when I first turned around," Gail said, gesturing to her face.

"Huh?" Holly's eyes knitted together in confusion before a look of comprehension replaced it. "Oh. You mean my glasses," she concluded, grinning widely, as though she has solved some great mystery. Gail nodded. "I wear contacts for track. It became a hassle having to push my glasses back up my nose every ten seconds. Slowed me down." She reached over and grabbed something out of her backpack and placed it on the table.

Gail's eyes bulged out of her head. "A LUNCHBOX?!" she sputtered, grabbing her side, laughing uncontrollably. "You bring your lunch in a literal lunchbox?!" She bent over, trying to regain control, but failing terribly.

"It keeps everything at the proper temperature!" Holly asserted, indignant.

"Oh, man. You are such a nerd." Gail said, still laughing. "The guys must be all over you, what with your lunchbox and textbooks and glasses. I bet you have to beat 'em back with a stick, huh?"

Holly shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and this didn't go unnoticed by Gail. Holly decided not to respond, and instead opted for quickly changing the subject.

"So tell me about yourself, Gail. What's your story?" She nibbled on the corner of her sandwich, which was carefully cut into four little triangles.

"Cute sandwich, lunchbox. Mommy cut it for you?" Gail mocked, ignoring Holly's request for an in-depth discussion of her and her life.

Holly stopped mid-bite and looked directly into Gail's eyes. "My mom is dead."

A look of horror overtook Gail's face and what little color was in her cheeks to begin with drained out. "Oh my- oh my god. Holly, I'm so sorry. I had no idea, honestly. I feel like a total ass." Before she knew what she was doing, she very uncharacteristically reached across the table and placed her hand over Holly's own.

Just then, to Gail's complete and utter confusion, Holly's face broke into a huge smile and her entire body began to shake with laughter. She bent over and slammed both her forehead and her fist onto the table an began smashing her fist repeatedly against it.

Not amused in the slightest, Gail's face returned to its normally stoic and steely form. "Your mom isn't really dead, is she?"

Still unable to control the laughter rolling through her, Holly shook her head slowly. She took off her glasses and wiped the tears that had begun to form around the rim of her eyes.

"You're an ass. And now you'll never hear the amazing, edge-of-your-seat, somewhat true thriller that is the twisted tale of my life." Gail popped a grape into her mouth and chewed it dramatically, dismissing Holly with a wave of her hand.

Though she'd never admit it, that utterly tasteless joke was the beginning of the changing of the tides in regards to her opinion of Holly. Any person that could keep up with her quick-witted, crude humor and disrespectful banter was okay in her book.

Holly put on her best look of disbelief and crossed her arms. "What?! Come on! I'll tell you mine!"

Gail's eyes looked her up and down, as though she were sizing her up, deciding whether or not Holly's story was worth hearing. "Hm. Okay. Full name?"

"Holly Stewart."

"Ah, ah, ah! Middle name, too." Gail prompted.

Holly let out an exaggerated sigh. "Bernadine." She narrowed her eyes, as if challenging Gail, daring her to make fun of her. Again, it was too easy, and Gail decided that a simple smirk would suffice.

"Favorite color?"

"Green."

"TV show?"

"Grey's Anatomy. Oh, oh! Orphan Black. No no, maybe Bones. When I was a kid I really liked Boy Meets World. Well, I guess it's not when I was just a kid," Holly began to ramble, "I still watch it when it's on. And I watch Rizzoli and Isles and sometimes reruns of ER. Although when I'm in the mood for some mindless television, I do enjoy watching Keeping Up With the Kardash-"

"-Lunchbox! That's enough. Thanks for not actually answering that question. We'll come back to it another time."

She realized with embarrassment that by saying that, she was automatically assuming that they'd spend more time together, and by extension, was admitting to both Holly and herself that she _wanted_ to spend more time with her. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks and scrambled to recover. "Onward and upward. Next question. Favorite movie?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm." Holly tapped her chin as if deep in thought. "Pretty Woman."

Gail pushed her bottom lip out and granted Holly a nod of approval. "Not a bad choice. Waiting for some middle-aged man to show up at your window in a white limo, are you Holly?"

Yet again, Holly squirmed a bit at Gail's mention of the male species. Just then, it dawned on Gail. _She must have never had a boyfriend before_, she thought. Gail thought back to the textbooks and lunchbox from earlier and nodded to herself. _That has to be it_.

Holly looked at her with one eyebrow raised, as if to ask why Gail was nodding.

"Yeah, I feel you. Men suck." Gail said matter-of-factly. "Having a boyfriend is overrated." Even as the words were leaving her mouth, Gail was already chastising herself for acting like such a lame-ass. She wasn't the type to try to make people feel better, or to even really acknowledge human existence outside of her friends and family.

Was Holly her friend now? Did she want Holly to be her friend? Why did she care?

She didn't. Right?

Frustrated by her foreign desire for a new friend and feelings of sympathy, Gail snatched up her now empty sandwich bags and stuffed them hastily into the paper bag she brought them in. "Whoa, look at the time. I gotta go. I'm gonna be late for my next class." She swung her backpack over her shoulder and rushed out of the cafeteria, aggressively slamming her garbage into the bin on her way out.

Holly sat there, confused at the sudden and unexpected turn of events. She glanced at the clock. 12:40. They still had five minutes left in the lunch period. Gail was definitely not in danger of being late to any class.

Dejected, Holly packed up her books and lunchbox, threw away her garbage, and trudged slowly out of the cafeteria and toward her next class.

**So, what's the verdict? Please leave a review with any comments, suggestions, etc! **


	3. Meeting Her Match

Throughout the rest of the day, Gail was chastising herself for being such an idiot. Who cares if she wanted to make a new friend? Everybody likes to have friends. Was it really _that_ bad that she felt something close to a normal human emotion?

She had been this way for as long as she could remember. She was cold and unapologetic. She kept her distance from everybody, even her friends. She blamed her parents. The two people in the world who were supposed to care about her most were the same two people that she had always had little more than an acquaintanceship with. If her own parents couldn't bother to stick around, how could she expect anyone else to? Getting too close to people was dangerous. She knew better than anybody that even those closest to you can up and leave just when you need them most. It was easier to just not let anybody in.

Then came Holly. There was something that Gail couldn't figure out. Something she couldn't pinpoint that intrigued her in a way that nobody had before. Or worried her. Or excited her. Or scared her. She wasn't quite sure what she was feeling, and maybe that was exactly the answer. She was feeling something. For once, she was feeling _something_.

And now Gail lay perfectly still, arms folded underneath her head, staring at her bedroom ceiling. She felt like an ass. She wanted to apologize but she didn't know what to say. Sorry for being an idiot? Sorry for running out of the cafeteria without explanation? She knew that she couldn't explain even if she wanted to. She didn't even understand herself.

She racked her brain to think of a way to get a hold of Holly. She glanced at her watch. 4:15. Holly would still be at track practice. Gail could drive over there and just find her and- _whoa Gail, you're entering total stalker territory here_. She shook her head and sat up, trying to push it out of her mind for now.

She swung her legs over the side of her bed and debated going downstairs to get a snack. It seemed like too difficult an undertaking for the amount of energy she currently had, so instead she lifted her legs back up and stretched them out to the end of her bed, grabbing the remote and flipping mindlessly through the channels.

News..

Baseball..

Cartoons..

More news..

Grey's Anatomy..

Some cooking show..

Wait- Grey's Anatomy? Hadn't Holly said that she liked that show?

Gail flipped back one channel and set her remote down on her nightstand, settling in to watch.

Three hours later, Gail was still watching it. Apparently some sort of marathon was on, because episode after episode began, and the wounded bodies kept piling up. Most of the time, they saved the patients, but sometimes they lost them. After a small boy died of a liver cancer, Gail couldn't handle any more. This show was heart-wrenching.

She stretched her body out as thinly as she could and put a hand over her mouth as a yawn threatened to escape. It was now past seven and she still hadn't eaten anything since lunch. Begrudgingly, she dragged one foot in front of the other and made her way downstairs.

When she reached the bottom step, she saw Steve standing with his head in the refrigerator, weighing the few options he had for this evening's sustenance.

"Hey, move out of the way, fatty," Gail said, shoving him to the side and sticking her own head into the fridge. Week-old salad, jelly, some fruit, a gallon of milk, and last night's leftovers. Appetizing. She grabbed an apple and rinsed it off before plopping herself down on the couch.

"May I resume my perusal of the contents of the refrigerator, your majesty?" Steve asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I suppose, peasant," she said with an absent-minded wave of her hand. She crunched down again on her apple.

"Do you even need this anymore? Didn't you quit?" Steve said, removing a piece of paper from underneath a magnet on the refrigerator. Gail looked up to find out what he was referring to just as he started crinkling it up and setting his body in a basketball shooting position, angled toward the garbage can.

"Wait-no! Don't throw that out!" Gail launched herself over the back of the couch before Steve could release the crumpled up piece of paper.

She snatched it out of his hands and smoothed it out against the counter. It was the phone tree her track coach had given her before their last meet. In case a practice was cancelled or changed for any reason, all members of the track team had a list of everyone else's number to keep them in the loop.

"Ah! Steve, you're a genius!" She exclaimed, holding the paper aloft. She turned and ran upstairs, taking them two at a time.

She leaped onto her bed and held the paper close to her face, scanning it for Holly's name. Finding it all the way at the bottom, she carefully and slowly punched the numbers into her cell phone and created a new contact for Holly. When it asked her to type in a name, she smirked to herself and decided on "Lunchbox."

She crumpled up the paper again and threw it haphazardly toward her trash bin, missing entirely. She never was very good at sports. She returned her attention to her phone, opening up a new text.

**G: Hey Holly, it's me. Gail. Sorry I ran out on**-

Delete, delete, delete. She sounded like an idiot.

**G: Hi, Holly. I hope you had a good day and that me ditching you at**-

Ew. Even more lame.

Finally, she settled on a much more simple message.

A few blocks down the road, a message pinged through on Holly's phone from an unknown number.

Confused, she opened the message and read it.

**G: Hey, Holly. It's Gail.**

Holly's eyes nearly bulged out of her head. Gail? She thought she'd done something wrong today at lunch and figured she'd never hear from her again. Maybe she was finally making a friend here after all.

**H: Hi. How are you? **

Gail laughed to herself upon receiving the message. Holly was so proper.

**G: Oh, I'm fine. Watched THREE HOURS of Grey's Anatomy tonight. I blame you. **

**H: It's pretty great, huh? Which season was it? **

**G: How the hell would I know? I was just flipping through channels and landed on it. **

**H: True, true. Well considering you watched three hours, I assume you enjoyed it. Maybe we can have a marathon together sometime. :) **

Holly knew she was walking on a tightrope when it came to Gail. She was difficult to read, but this much Holly was sure of. It seemed like one wrong thing could send Gail in the opposite direction, but she figured she might as well take the chance. She was getting bored of sitting home every weekend hanging out with her parents.

Gail read the message and thought about it, reminding herself that it wasn't bad to want to make a new friend. She finally decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a try.

**G: Hmm.. hanging out with a lunchbox-carrying nerd who goes on lunch dates with her textbooks. How could I refuse? **

Holly barked out a laugh when she read Gail's response. She was a snarky one, alright.

**H: How about this weekend? **

**G: I suppose I could pencil you in. **

**H: Haha. I'm glad you can spare some time for little ol' me. **

**G: You're an idiot. Anyway, I gotta go. Got some homework. I hope your lunchbox was good enough company for you for the remainder of the lunch period today. Talk to you later. **

Knowing somehow that this lunchbox comment was Gail's way of trying to apologize while still not really apologizing, Holly smiled to herself. Gail felt bad about leaving her the way she did. Perhaps there was a good person under that tough exterior, after all. She would just have to wait and see.

**H: Yeah, my lunchbox is right up there with you on the "good company" scale. Or should I say bad company? Probably more accurate. Ha. Goodnight. **

Gail read this last message with incredulity. Never before had a person thrown her snark right back in her face, and Holly had now done it several times. Gail was thoroughly impressed.

She laughed, set her phone down on her nightstand, rolled over, and fell asleep with a smile on her face.

**A/N: Hey guys! I know this chapter was short but it made more sense to cut it off here and begin a new chapter than to add the next part onto here. I am about to start the fourth chapter right now, so it will be coming soon! I hope you're enjoying the story. :) **


	4. Doctors and Donuts

**A/N: SPOILER ALERT! Not for any Rookie Blue events, but for events in the fifth season of Grey's Anatomy. Though I assume that if you were going to watch Grey's you would have already seen the episode to which I refer, it's possible that somebody is just starting to watch the show. So to whomever it may concern, I am sorry. Onward and upward- here's Chapter 4. **

Holly jumped, hearing the doorbell sound from the bottom of the stairs. She leapt off of her bed and ran down the stairs, jumping to the floor with five steps to go. She straightened up and smoothed out her clothes before opening the door.

"Hey!" She smiled brightly and took in the sight of Gail, a six-pack of pepsi under one arm, a box of donuts in the other, and a bag of chips hanging from between her perfectly white teeth. "Wow, you're.. prepared," she finished lamely, not really knowing where she was going with that. "Come on in."

She moved to the side, allowing Gail into her house.

She laughed as Gail stomped down the hall, dropping the food on the counter and kicking her shoes off as if she owned the place, or had ever even been there before, for that matter.

"Well you know, I don't marathon without proper fuel. Gotta consume lots of sugars and caffeine to keep me awake. Those actors might put me to sleep otherwise."

Holly smiled a knowing smile. "Oh hush, you love this show already. I can tell."

Gail smirked and looked at her slyly from the corner of her eyes. She really did like the show a lot. She turned back to the food and began to tear open the box of donuts.

Holly took this opportunity to really look at Gail. She had kicked off a pair of gray Converse Chuck Taylors, which she had paired with white short-shorts and a button-up flannel with the sleeves rolled up. She looked good. Casual, but good. She really was very pretty. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, allowing Holly to see the expanse of her neck.

It was then that Holly realized just how pale Gail really was. She had porcelain skin that looked like it might shatter if Gail were to fall. Her collar bone was clearly visible at the opening of her shirt. Holly swallowed and grasped desperately at straws, trying to grab onto a point of conversation.

''So, looks like you really quit track, huh?"

As soon as she said it, Holly mentally slapped herself. Why would she bring up track? Gail hated track.

"Are you kidding me?! I quit that shit the day I said I was going to. I don't mess around," Gail answered, popping a can of pepsi open. She slurped up the small amount of soda that gathered around the rim of the soda and started moving toward Holly's living room.

Holly laughed and followed Gail into the next room. "So, do you want to start from the beginning or from where you left off? I know all the episodes so well, I'll be able to figure it out if you can just tell me a little about what happened in the last one you watched."

Gail considered her options and decided to pick up where she had left off. She'd gotten pretty invested in the characters and their storylines already. "Umm.. let's see. That bitchy heart doctor left. The cardio-something-or-other surgeon. They called her the wicked witch I think? And then Meredith's friend, the one she calls 'dead' or something?"

"Death and Die, right." Holly corrected. She already knowing exactly which episode Gail was trying to explain.

"Yeah, she comes. I don't like her much, though. I like Meredith and that other doctor as friends."

Holly laughed as Gail got done explaining and adding in her own thoughts and opinions here and there. She loved that someone was going to watch it with her; none of her friends from home ever would.

"Okay, so you just finished Season 5, Episode 8. Let me grab my dvds." She ran upstairs and returned a minute or two later, dvds in hand. She popped one into the dvd player and selected the right episode.

"I'm going to get addicted to this show, I can already feel it. And it'll be all your fault, Lunchbox. I hope you're ready to deal with the guilt." Gail stretched out on the couch and tucked her arms underneath her head.

Gail glanced over to see Holly shaking her head and smiling. It put a smile on Gail's face too, and she wasn't quite sure why.

For hours, doctors flitted across the screen, going in and out of operating rooms, doing surgeries, checking on their patients, and having sex and making out in all sorts of inappropriate locations.

"Hey do you think that's really what happens? That doctors all have sex with each other and stuff? Right there in the hospital?" Gail asked, intrigued. She rolled over to look at Holly, chin propped up on her hands.

"I really wouldn't know. I've only had sex with one person. I don't get the lifestyle of people that sleep around or date one person after another after another." Holly said, tilting her head in thought.

"Huh. Yeah I guess I don't either. And ohhhh, tell me about him!" Gail said excitedly, wiggling her eyebrows.

Holly blushed and looked down. "My stories wouldn't interest you. What about you, anyway?"

Gail narrowed her eyes but answered anyway. "Two people. Dated the first one for a year and the second one for six months before he cheated on me with my friend. Not happy stories."

Holly's eyes widened and she automatically regretted asking. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked. That's none of my business." She shuffled around, looking for something to do, but came up empty.

Gail reached over from the couch and placed her hand over Holly's own. "Hey, relax. It's fine. It was almost a year ago now so I don't even really think about it anymore. No worries." She gave Holly a smile and withdrew her hand_. Jesus, what is happening to me?_ Gail furrowed her eyebrows and laid back down, wondering when the hell she became such a caring individual.

Holly's mind was spinning too, but not for the same reasons Gail's was. No, Holly's brain was doing something else entirely, and it was something that Holly certainly did not want it to do. The second Gail's hand touched hers, her stomach has flipped and her heart rate sped up. _Shit_, she thought, _not again_.

Holly had this problem before, back in her hometown, and she had lost a friend because of it. It was something Holly had pushed away for so many years, and had just recently come to terms with. She knew from the time she was in middle school that she wasn't like the other girls. She didn't have huge crushes on the cute boys the way all her friends did. Sure, she thought some were cute, but beyond that, she never felt that she clicked with any of them. She felt awkward and uncomfortable around them, and it made for little interaction with the male species as a whole.

She had finally figured out why a couple years ago when she had fallen for her friend Victoria. Needless to say, it hadn't ended well. It left her feeling broken and empty and ashamed. She didn't want to feel that way again. She couldn't. But for some reason, she also felt that there was no way she was going to cut Gail out of her life. She was the first person that had made her feel alive in so long, and no matter the consequences, she wasn't about to give that up.

"I can practically see the gears cranking in there, nerd." Gail had now flipped over onto her back and was hanging upside down over the arm of Holly's couch.

Holly burst out laughing when she saw her, wondering how the hell she could have been so deep in thought as to not notice Gail hanging like a monkey off of her couch. "You're a freak, you know that?"

"Coming from the girl who got a First Aid kit for her birthday last year." Gail pointed out, an evil grin stretched across her mouth.

"How did you-?" Holly questioned, slightly concerned as to how the hell Gail would know that.

"Listen here, little girl," Gail started, turning herself back upright, "both my parents are cops. I've been taught to be hyper-observant and hyper-aware of my surroundings since I was two years old."

"Okaayyy.." Holly squinted, trying to understand what Gail was saying and how it could possibly connect to her freakish knowledge of Holly's life before they even lived in the same country.

"There's a photo on your fireplace mantle of you holding up a First Aid kit. You're standing in front of a table with a cake on it that says 'happy birthday Holly' and there's wrapping paper at your feet. Date's stamped in the bottom right corner," Gail stated simply.

Holly's jaw hung open and she couldn't quite remember how to get it to shut again. Gail barked out a laugh and shrugged her shoulders. "Just one of my many talents."

"Holy heck. That's impressive. You're really going to go far. I bet you'll be a detective one day. The best in Toronto." Holly urged, getting excited and talking quickly.

Gail sat up and held both hands in front of her, palms facing out. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Elaine. Calm down."

"Elaine?"

"My mother. She assumes I'm going to go into police work just because they did and Steve is going to as well. I'm not even sure I want to do that."

Holly backtracked, feeling like an ass. "Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed. I just meant that- well, you know- you seem to have real natural talent that would allow you to succeed in such a profession. You could do anything you wanted, I bet. You could be a doctor or a teacher or an artist or maybe even be one of those people that smoothes out the ice in ice rinks on those little machine thingies."

"A zamboni."

"A zam-whatti?" Holly said, confused at the gibberish Gail was speaking.

"It's called a zamboni. The 'little machine thingy' that's used to smooth the ice," Gail explained, adding air quotes around the words she quoted from Holly. "Wow, you can definitely tell you're not a real Canadian."

"Oops. I better brush up on my lingo from the Great White North." Holly giggled at her own lame-ass joke.

Gail just looked at her blankly and told her to resume the marathon.

Right as the episode began, the episode number appeared on the screen. _Episode 14 already? Holy shit_, Gail thought, looking down at her watch. It was already almost dinnertime.

They watched through the episode, showcasing two characters, Lexie and Mark, and their budding secret romance. Gail had a good grip on the characters now, along with their whole names, personalities, and storylines.

Just as the episode was coming to an end, a scene plays out showing Callie crying in the bathroom at the bar. In comes the new pediatric surgeon, Arizona. Arizona says a little speech about how people really like Callie and how when she's ready, people will be lining up for her. Unexpectedly, and to Gail's surprise, Arizona leans in and presses a soft kiss to Callie's lips.

"Whoa! I did NOT see that coming," Gail comments, throwing her hands up in the air. "So Callie is a big ol' lesbian now, then? I would've never guessed. Did you?" She playfully rolled over onto her stomach and bent her legs at the knees, crossing her ankles and swinging them forward and backward.

A big smile spread over Holly's face. Gail looked so adorable the way she was laying and talking about the show with an almost childlike excitement.

Holly shook her head. "I mean, considering she was kind of dating Hahn, I guess it wasn't too out of the blue."

Gail considered this. "I guess you're right. I forgot about that. I didn't like Hahn. I only liked that she hated everybody and wasn't nice to people. Arizona is too cheery and upbeat for my taste, but at least she didn't talk about seeing leaves. That automatically makes her better."

Yet again, Holly shook her head at Gail's ridiculous logic.

Just then, they heard the front door open and in walked a pair of middle-aged people, obviously Holly's parents.

"Hi mom, hi dad. This is Gail," Holly said, introducing her new friend to them.

Gail moved forward and extended her arm to each of them, shaking their hands.

Holly's mom gave her a warm smile. "Well hello, Gail. It's nice to meet you. Will you be staying for dinner?" she questioned, looking toward Holly and then back to Gail.

"Not tonight, no. Thank you anyway if that was a invitation, but I should actually probably get going. It looks like my parents might actually be home for dinner tonight, and let me tell you, that's a miracle," Gail informed them, moving to put her shoes on.

Holly stood up from the recliner she had been camping out in the for last few hours and began to walk Gail toward the door. Her mother called down the hall to Gail.

"Okay, maybe next time! You're always welcome!" She smiled cheerily at Gail before disappearing around the corner and out of sight.

They reached the door and stopped awkwardly in front of it.

Gail looked at her shoes. Holly looked at the ceiling.

She wasn't sure why, but suddenly Gail felt very uncomfortable. Maybe it was the way Holly wasn't saying anything, or maybe it was the way she wouldn't meet her eyes. Whatever it was, it made Gail's hands sweat and mind race. She had to get out of there.

"Thanks for inviting me over. That was fun," Gail stated to break the silence.

"Of course, yeah. I had fun, too." Holly said in response.

It was weird, almost like they were in some reverse end-of-the-first-date moment, caught on the step inside of the door rather than outside of it.

Holly moved to hug Gail and Gail started to move away to avoid the hug. After a split second, she thought better of it and hugged Holly back, surprised at how nice it actually was. _Weird_, Gail thought, releasing Holly and taking a step back.

She grabbed the door handle and pulled it open, promising to get lunch with Holly on Monday.

"Yeah, yeah. I suppose I'll be the third wheel on yet another date with your textbooks," Gail said, rolling her eyes and sighing.

Holly laughed for what felt like the thousandth time that day. She didn't know what it was about Gail and her quirky way of thinking and crude sense of humor, but she found herself wanting more.

"Okay, cool. See you then." Holly watched and waved as Gail stepped outside and walked down her driveway toward her car.

She already couldn't wait to spend more time with the snappy, intriguing blond.

_SHIT_. _Shit, shit, shit_, Holly thought, banging her head against the door. _Here we go again_.

**Reviews make me happy and keep me fueled. Please feel free to let me know what you think! **


	5. A Beer and a Buzz

For the next two weeks, Gail and Holly ate lunch together every day. Gail had all but lost contact with her other friends, and she found that she didn't care. They did little more than shit on her for being cold and unwelcoming, anyway. They never even gave her the benefit of the doubt.

Holly saw her differently, and she knew that. Holly saw right through her hard exterior. At first, this terrified Gail. She didn't like letting people in. It scared her. But with Holly, she felt okay about it. It was nice not having to be anything but yourself around somebody. Gail knew that Holly saw her. She really _saw_ her, and she didn't judge her for it. She accepted her for exactly who she was. And Gail wanted to thank Holly for this, but she didn't know how. So she stayed quiet.

Holly on the other hand was struggling with these feelings she was having toward Gail. She hoped that maybe she was confusing it with the excitement of making a new friend and getting to know somebody, but after the last two weeks, there was no more denying it. Every time Gail smiled, she felt a smile stretch across her face without her consent. She laughed at everything Gail said. She was just plain happy and there were no two ways about it.

However, this happiness didn't come without some worry. There were only two weeks left in the school year, and then Holly would be graduating. Without lunches to spend together, would they still spend time together? Would they make time to hang out when it wasn't already carved into their daily schedules? It scared Holly to think about losing Gail, so she pushed these thoughts out of her head.

One Friday night, Holly found herself getting settled into bed when her phone beeped from atop her dresser. She got up to check it, lighting up when she saw Gail's name.

**G: Hey, nerd. What are you doing this weekend? **

**H: Uhh? I'm not sure yet. Final exams are coming up, I should get a jump on studying. **

**G: TWO WEEKS AHEAD OF TIME?! You're crazy. Besides, that's the wrong answer. You are accompanying me to a family barbeque at my Aunt's tomorrow afternoon and staying there with me for the night. **

**H: Oh, am I? Isn't that up to me? **

**G: Ha! Who wouldn't want to spend an entire afternoon and evening and following morning with me and the rest of the Peck clan? Here's a hint: the answer is nobody. **

Holly smiled to herself, as usual. She couldn't help it, and she hated herself for not being able to control it. These feelings were getting out of hand, and she needed to do something to stop them. ASAP.

**H: I suppose you're right. What time shall I expect you?**

**G: Pick you up at 2. And you better be ready. It's at her camp on the lake, so bring a swimsuit. Night night, lunchbox. 3 **

Holly's heart skipped a beat when she saw the little symbols making up a heart. She knew Gail meant it as a joke, but it didn't stop her body from having an automatic reaction.

_Jesus, calm down_, Holly chastised herself and her body. She leaned over and flicked off the light switch before rolling over and curling up into her blankets, thinking excitedly about the day she and Gail would have ahead of them in the morning.

* * *

The next morning, Gail was awoken by the impossibly bright sunshine streaming in through her window. She hadn't pulled her curtains closed last night like she usually did, and she was very much regretting it.

Usually groggy and disoriented until nearly an hour after waking up, Gail was up and about within minutes of the sun so rudely waking her. She wasn't sure why, but she had an energy, almost like a current, running through her body.

She looked at the clock on her bedside table. It was nearly eleven, and she still had several hours until she had to go pick Holly up. When the energy wouldn't dissipate, she put on her runners, tied them carefully, and took off down the street.

She jogged past children playing basketball in their driveways, past people walking their dogs, past the parked cars of her neighbors' weekend visitors. She looked up directly into the sun and felt her eyes water. She squeezed them shut tightly in order to re-orient her vision. She felt.. alive.

She had a beautiful, long summer stretched out ahead of her followed by her senior year of high school. She wasn't running stupid track anymore and tests were weeks away still. She had a whole day ahead of her to spend at her Aunt's admittedly awesome camp with the girl who had come to be her closest friend. She felt content as she rounded the corner to begin heading back to her house.

* * *

Two and a half hours later found Gail cruising up the street toward Holly's house. When she reached the beautiful house with the wrap-around porch and picket fence, she pressed her palm into the middle of her steering wheel to signal to Holly that she had arrived.

Two minutes later, Holly emerged from her house, casually dressed but still somehow looking like a model. The past few days, Gail had started to notice how pretty Holly really was. She was tall and lean, her thin lines of muscle flexing whenever she moved. She tanned easily and was therefore a beautiful shade of golden brown. Though they had never discussed it, Gail suspected that she was Italian.

She walked with a gracefulness that Gail had never and would never possess. Gail narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what it was about Holly that made her so pretty. She was naturally pretty, but there was another element that made her exquisite. Finally, just as Holly was about to reach the car, Gail put her finger on it. Holly was so gorgeous because she genuinely didn't know that she was beautiful.

And then for some inexplicable reason, when Holly pulled open the door and slid into the passenger's seat, Gail's stomach flipped. After being so excited for today, she was suddenly overcome with a wave of nervousness.

For the first time since she had met Holly, she felt awkward. She was suddenly hyper-aware of how she appeared to Holly. Of how she looked. Of how she came across when she spoke. Instead of potentially saying something stupid, Gail opted for keeping her mouth shut.

Gail looked over at Holly and smiled, and when Holly smiled back, her worries melted away. This was Holly. Just Holly. Silly, funny, intelligent, driven, wonderful, beautiful Holly. _Beautiful?_ Gail shook her head and decided to just focus on the road and stop thinking altogether.

Half an hour later, Gail took a right turn and began down the long dirt road that would eventually lead to her Aunt's camp. When they finally drove through into the clearing of the trees and the house came into view, Gail couldn't help but glance over at Holly and giggle at the awed look on her face. Holly was adorable sometimes. _Adorable, Gail, really? For the love of God, who thinks their friends are adorable?_

Turning to fix her eyes on the road again, she veered off and parked up along the side of the house.

"Well, here we are. The house of dreams. I'd come up here all the time as a kid and I always wanted to live here permanently. Steve and I would come here with our parents for the weekend and when it was time to go, we'd hide, hoping that they'd never find us and we would get to stay and live here all by ourselves," Gail reminisced.

Holly laughed and Gail felt self-conscious all of the sudden.

"It's stupid, I know," she said, cheeks turning red.

Holly looked over at her and shook her head lightly. "No, it's not. It's cute."

Gail's stomach flipped again. She ignored it and opened the door, extending her legs out and stretching them as far as she could before stepping out onto solid ground.

They heard a shriek from the doorway to the house and snapped their heads up toward the offending noise.

"GAIIIILLLLL!" the person shouted, and they burst forth through the screen door and ran toward Gail, throwing their arms around her when they reached her.

"Aunt Linda!" Gail said, joy evident in her voice. She wrapped her arms around the woman and squeezed tightly, not letting her go for several moments.

Holly watched as Gail's Aunt released her and moved to stand an arm's length away from Gail, hands remaining on Gail's upper arms. She looked her up and down as though inspecting her, and was positively beaming at the sight of her niece.

Holly couldn't blame her. Gail was quite the sight to see. She was absolutely gorgeous, her alabaster skin glistening against the sun. Holly wanted to reach out and touch that skin, to run her fingertips over Gail's biceps and feel Gail's blond hair tickling her own arms.

Holly sighed, already somewhat regretting her decision to join Gail here when she knew that what she should really be doing was figuring out how to stop having feelings for her.

"Aunt Linda, this is my friend Holly," Gail said, gesturing toward her. "Holly, Aunt Linda."

Holly took a step toward Linda and reached out to shake her hand, being taken by surprise when Linda closed the space between them and wrapped her arms around her, hugging her just like she had Gail.

Taken aback but not displeased, Holly hugged her back. "It's so nice to meet you," she murmured.

She met Gail's eyes and Gail was smiling, clearly glad that Holly was being welcomed with open arms, quite literally.

Linda released Holly and looked back and forth between the two girls. "You two are just the prettiest little things, I tell ya! Come on in, I'll give you a tour of the house, Holly, and I'll show you girls where you'll be sleeping tonight." She started toward the house, and Gail and Holly exchanged glances and quick smiles before following Linda inside.

* * *

"Shhhh! SHHHHH!" Gail hushed Holly, army crawling as discretely as she could toward the coolers. Holly was close behind, giggling uncontrollably.

The sun had finally gone down after a long day, and the whole family was out in the backyard, drinking beer, dancing, and laughing their heads off.

Gail was happy to see her whole family together like this. As stern and detached as Gail's parents could be at home, they were always lively and full of joy when they were surrounded by the rest of the family. Gail loved watching her dad with his family and always tried to picture what it must have been like for him growing up with all these people, but she somehow couldn't see him as anything but the professional and honorable, yet somewhat boring man he usually was.

He was so boring in fact, that he hadn't allowed Gail or Holly to have even one beer, even though Holly was only a couple months away from being of age.

This, however, led to the ridiculous and downright hilarious situation they found themselves in. Bodies pressed flush against the ground, and only moving a few feet at a time, Gail and Holly were crawling slowly but surely toward the coolers full of beer.

Gail knew that if she got caught, she'd be in big trouble, but she figured it was worth the risk. She had been feeling a little off all day, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out what it was. The natural easiness that had always been present between her and Holly had gotten a little stiff and awkward and Gail wasn't sure if it was her, or it was Holly, or if maybe she was just thinking too deeply into things.

Regardless of what the reason was, Gail needed to relax and loosen up a bit.

"Okay, you stay here and I'll go the rest of the way and toss the beers back to you," Gail whispered to Holly. In response, Holly nodded once and added an "aye, aye, captain" for good measure.

Wiggling as close to the beer coolers as possible, Gail lifted the top and looked around, making sure that nobody was watching or coming to get more beer of their own.

When she was sure the coast was clear, she grabbed one beer and turned her body halfway, tossing it backward to Holly. She caught it with ease and set it upright on her left side, positioning her hands to receive the next one.

Gail could hear her stifling a laugh, and this made Gail have to suppress a laugh of her own. She reached in and tossed back another. And another. And another.

When all was said and done, Gail and Holly had managed to steal eight beers before Gail spotted her Uncle Charlie heading toward the coolers.

She ducked into the shadows and waited, stock still, for him to grab two beers and turn his back to them, heading back down near the lake with the rest of the adults.

She army crawled her way back to where Holly was crouched and grabbed four of the beers, pinning them between her arm and her body as she continued on into a little clearing of trees that was lit up just enough to see from the porch light on the back of the house.

Holly was close behind, wriggling her way over before finally sitting up and letting out a giggle, trying to catch her breath.

"That was awesome," she said when she could finally manage to speak.

Gail nodded. "I can't believe we got eight! Go us!"

She and Holly high-fived, but when their hands connected, Holly curled her fingers over and held onto Gail's hand for a few seconds before letting it go. Gail's stomach lurched. She busied herself by cracking open two beers and handing one to Holly, whose face had suddenly gone red.

"To us! And our perfectly executed plan to illegally obtain and consume this beer." Gail clinked her can against Holly's before taking a big gulp. Holly did the same.

"I hate beer," she confessed, as her face screwed in a look of unpleasantness.

Gail laughed. "Does anybody _like_ beer? I don't, but you gotta put up with the taste in order to let the good times roll." She lifted the can to her lips again and chugged down most of the rest of the can. Holly followed suit.

* * *

An hour and a half later, Gail and Holly were still perched up against the trees, but with several empty beer cans now discarded at their feet.

She wasn't sure if this beer had a higher alcoholic content than the last kind she'd had, but after three and a half beers, Gail had quite the buzz going. From the looks of it, Holly was on her way to inebriation herself.

One second Holly was ridiculous and laughing uncontrollably at something incredibly stupid, and the next second, she was being severely honest and open about things she'd never before discussed with Gail.

Gail watched as Holly traced the rim of her last can of beer with her middle finger, seemingly deep in thought. She opened and closed her mouth several times before actually speaking.

"Gail?"

"Yes, Holly?"

"Do you ever just like, look in the mirror on some mornings and wish that you were seeing something different?" Holly sighed, her eyes slowly lifting from her beer can to meet Gail's.

"Uh. I guess so. I mean nobody is happy with the way they look all the time, right?" Gail wasn't sure what Holly was getting at.

"Because I just sometimes wake up and see myself in the morning and I just wish I was prettier." Holly sighed a labored sigh and let her eyes fall to the ground.

"You're beautiful."

It was there before Gail realized she was putting it there. It was said before she had a chance to comprehend what she was about to say and stop it before it actually escaped her lips.

Holly looked up and bore her eyes deep into Gail's. For several moments they just looked at each other. Gail couldn't take it back and she couldn't feign having said something else, so she just looked back at Holly until she couldn't stand it any longer.

She jumped to her feet and began doing a little jig in place. She was nearly drunk, but she was sober enough to realize that she would never be doing this if she weren't intoxicated. She decided that she didn't care, and that she'd be as ridiculous as she wanted tonight.

"Dance with me!" she shouted, pulling Holly to her feet. She kept one hand wrapped around Holly's and wrapped the other around Holly's back. She smiled up at Holly and began to move their bodies forward and backward, side to side with no rhyme or reason.

It wasn't really dancing, what they were doing. It was more like drunkenly jumping around and acting like complete idiots, but Gail was having fun and Holly was having fun and neither of them cared, because they knew that the other would accept them no matter what.

The music emanating from the speakers on the porch sped up, and Gail kept in time with the beat of the music, pulling and pushing Holly around, but never letting her go.

She made an attempt at swinging Holly around, but she had already had too much to drink and the swinging only served to make her dizzy. She toppled over, bumping into Holly and pulling her down with her.

Gail landed face up and slammed her head on the ground as Holly crashed down face first on top of her.

Holly gasped as she saw Gail's head connect with the ground. "Oh my gosh! Gail! Are you alright?" She leaned all of her weight on one arm and used the other to wrap around the backside of Gail's head.

Disoriented, Gail began to answer and tell Holly that she'd be just fine when she trailed off, suddenly aware of the intimate and admittedly compromising position she found herself in with her best friend.

Holly was on top of her, her body pressed flush against her own. Her hand was cradling Gail's head and their faces were just inches apart.

Not understanding what was going on, but not really wanting to stop it either, Gail laid there still, not moving a muscle. She looked up into Holly's eyes, but they gave away nothing.

For several moments, an electricity passed through the air between the two girls but neither said a word or did anything that would break the moment.

Gail's eyes stayed fixed on Holly's, and she realized that they were getting closer. Gail inhaled sharply but still didn't move, even as Holly's lips were mere inches away from her own.

She didn't lean in toward Holly, but she didn't turn her head away either. She just let it happen.

The second Holly's lips met her own, Gail felt that she was shocked back to life. The electricity that had been moving in the air just a moment ago was now centered on all the places their lips met. Before she knew what she was doing, Gail's arms snaked around Holly's back and pulled her in closer. She moved one hand up Holly's back and settled it around the back of her neck, tugging slightly at the hair she found there.

Their lips moved together effortlessly, perfectly, like they had done it a thousand times before. Gail felt Holly's tongue trace the space between her lips and she parted them just enough to grant Holly's tongue access. The second she felt Holly's tongue against her own, she involuntarily let out the smallest of moans.

At the release of the moan from Gail's lips, Holly's stomach lurched and she felt like somebody had kicked the inner wall of her stomach. She forgot how to breathe and she needed to catch her breath before she passed out. She broke the kiss and backed away just far enough for her to be able to read the expression on Gail's face.

What she saw caused her to come down from the heaven she had been in just seconds before and begin to regret everything that had just transpired between her and Gail.

Gail looked horrified. Terrified. Her eyes were wider than Holly had ever seen them and Holly could tell by the complete stillness of Gail's body that she wasn't breathing. She was completely frozen.

As quickly as she could, Holly scrambled off of Gail and onto her feet. She backed away several feet and took one last look at Gail, still frozen on the ground, before turning and disappearing into the darkness.

**So what did you think?! Where do you think I should take it from here? I love suggestions and input from you guys and it is as always, much appreciated. :) **


	6. A Magic Disappearance

**At long last, here is Chapter 6! I just started a job and am working quite a bit- sorry for the delay!**

After several moments of not moving, of not even remembering _how _to move, Gail sat up.

_What? _

Her mind had gone blank. Where did Holly go? Why did she get up and leave like that? Gail replayed the scene from just a few moments ago.

They had simply been dancing around and laughing and having a good time when before she knew it, Holly was on top of her and she couldn't quite remember how she had gotten there. Next thing she knew, Holly was inches from her face and she did nothing to discourage her from getting any closer.

She had known what was going to happen before it happened, but she didn't move or turn her head away. Had she wanted it to happen deep down? Had some unconscious part of her been wanting to kiss Holly?

Just as she remembered the actual kiss, her face went red hot and she felt more self-conscious than she had in a long time. She had recalled the exact moment Holly's tongue slipped past her lips and touched her own. She had let a moan slip out of her mouth and she was 95% sure that's what had scared Holly off. She probably would have been scared off too, if she was being honest.

She couldn't remember ever being that turned on by a simple kiss and it embarrassed her to think about losing control like that so easily. And with another girl, no less.

Was she gay? She wasn't the one who had initiated the kiss. She rethought this for a moment, realizing that she also had ample opportunity to stop it from happening and for a reason she couldn't explain, she didn't.

_But she was still the one that made the move_, Gail thought. _Could Holly be gay?_

Just then, Gail felt everything clicking into place. All the pieces were fitting together and Gail was having flashbacks from the different times they had spent time together. It explained why Holly acted weird when Gail mentioned things about guys, explained why Holly wouldn't tell her about the one person that she'd slept with- could the reason be that it was a girl? Gail would have bet money on it. It explained why Holly awkwardly hovered around the door after they would hang out, looking everywhere but at Gail.

_Holy shit._

Gail jumped to her feet. She had to go find Holly.

She brushed herself off, her entire back covered with pine needles and dirt. She was headed toward the house as quickly as her legs would carry her when her Uncle Charlie came out of nowhere.

"Gailey! How are ya, kid? Haven't seen you around in quite some time!" he exclaimed, stumbling just the slightest bit. All the adults had been drinking for hours now, and she wouldn't doubt that every last one of them was drunk.

"I'm sorry, unc. I gotta go find my friend, I think she's upset," Gail explained, squeezing between him and the porch and making a break for it.

Before he even had time to respond, she had already run up the porch steps and was halfway to the door. She slid the door open and put it back into place behind her. She looked around in the kitchen and living room for Holly before making her way upstairs and down the hallway to where they were intended to be sleeping for the night.

She gently pushed the door open, not wanting to scare Holly. She was probably already terrified about what had just taken place between them and Gail didn't want to overwhelm her.

To her surprise, she found Holly laying in the bed, body as far to the right side of the bed as possible. Her eyes were closed and after pausing to listen, her breathing seemed steady.

_SLEEPING?! _Could she honestly be sleeping at a time like this?

That's when Gail realized: no, no she couldn't be sleeping at a time like this. No way. Holly was pretending to be asleep.

Gail felt a stab of pain in her chest when this dawned on her. In Gail's mind, there was only one explanation for this. Holly regretted it.

She felt sick. Never before had Gail felt the way she did in those few seconds that her lips connected with Holly's. Never before had she felt so sure, so right. Kissing Holly felt like it was something she was supposed to be doing. One of the only things that had made sense to her in such a long time.

All the teasing, the name-calling, the playful pushing.. Gail had liked Holly all along, she just wasn't able to admit it to herself. Now she had gone too far and she was being avoided. Ignored.

Unsure of what to do and not wanting to make Holly uncomfortable, Gail grabbed a pillow off the bed and dropped it onto the plush carpeting on the floor. She grabbed a blanket out of the closet and laid it out underneath the pillow as she got changed in the dark.

Several feet away, silent tears streamed down Holly's face. How could she let this happen again? _Again._ She knew better than to keep letting herself fall for these straight girls. It ruined everything and it left Holly with no friends, sad and lonely.

She listened as Gail had set up her makeshift bed on the ground. Her body began to shake with the intensity of her sobs. Gail didn't even want to be near her now. She was so disgusted by what happened that she would rather sleep on the floor than in the bed with her. _Who can blame her_, Holly thought as she heard the zipper of Gail's shorts and the subtle sound of denim sliding down Gail's legs.

If only things had gone differently, she might have the courage to stand up and walk over to Gail. To slide her hand up the outside of Gail's thighs and look her in the eyes before telling her how much she cared about her; how much she meant to her. She'd lean in slowly and stroke Gail's cheek before placing a soft, gentle kiss on Gail's perfect lips.

_Jesus Holly, get a grip_, she thought as she shook her head of these thoughts.

That is not the way things had played out, and Gail would not be welcoming of anymore moves on Holly's part. She'd made that pretty clear when she didn't call after her when she broke the kiss, or when she made a bed on the floor to avoid sleeping next to her.

Suddenly, the rustle of clothing stopped and she heard the floor creak with the weight of Gail's body laying into it. Holly closed her eyes, steadied her breath, and soon drifted off to sleep, the alcohol in her system aiding in her in doing so.

* * *

Sunlight spilled over the walls of the guest bedroom and the room began to heat up, alerting Gail of the arrival of morning.

Still half-asleep, she stretched and contorted her body, trying to relieve the pressure from different points in her back.

Why was she so sore? _Oh_.

Gail opened her eyes for confirmation that last night had really happened. Yup, she was on the floor, which meant that yup, Holly had been avoiding her, which meant that yup, they had made out and Holly freaked out and ran off.

Now sober, though admittedly feeling a bit queasy, Gail rehearsed what she wanted to say to Holly in her head. She wanted to apologize if she had taken things too far. She wanted to tell Holly that if she was gay, she still accepted her. Hell, that she was falling for her. However, she also wanted to reassure Holly that had it been a drunken mistake, they could forget all about it too, if that's what Holly wanted.

She sat up, prepared to make her speech, when she noticed that there wasn't the shape of a person outlined in the sheets and comforter. The bed was empty. Holly was not there.

Gail sprinted downstairs. "Mom! MOM! Mom, where are you?!"

She rounded a corner and nearly rammed smack dab into her mother, a bit unsteady on her feet.

Her mother looked at her in silence, but with eyebrows raised.

Out of breath, all Gail managed to get out was a breathless "Holly."

"Holly went home. She wasn't feeling well and had her father come to pick her up. She said that she didn't want to wake you. She's a very nice girl," her mother explained.

The queasiness coming back full force, Gail let out a strangled, "she left?"

Her mother nodded. "Yes, but if she was contagious, it's better that she left, so you didn't up sick as well."

Gail nodded absentmindedly before making her way absentmindedly back upstairs. She grabbed her phone and dialed Holly's number. After one ring, her stomach plummeted at the sound of the automated woman telling her that the number was out of service.

She tried again several times, but to no avail.

She did not hear from Holly.

She did not see her in the cafeteria.

She didn't get invited to her graduation.

She didn't see her all summer.

Holly was a ghost. She was gone.

**Please review! Let me know what you're thinking! **


	7. Ghosts From the Past

**A/N: Hey guys! I realize the ending to the last chapter was a bit dramatic/drastic, but I needed one of the girls to split in order to take the story in the direction I wanted it to go. Though I hadn't originally planned on it, Shelley421 gave me the idea to jump ahead in time to a timeline closer to the one in the show. Thank you to that person, by the way! I think it should make for an interesting reunion, no? Let me know what you guys think!**

**...**

**Ten years later **

"Peck!"

Gail turned her head just in time to catch Oliver Shaw motioning her over.

"Yeah?" she questioned, not really knowing what he wanted to speak to her about just as she was about to head into parade.

"What's up with Epstein recently? He seems a bit.. off," Oliver questioned, seeming somewhat hesitant to be approaching Gail of all people about the subject.

Gail rolled her eyes. "He and the chipmunk have been experiencing a little bit of trouble in dork paradise, I think."

Oliver nodded his head but said nothing.

"Why? What's it to you?" Gail asked, still a bit confused.

"They've got him riding with me today and I just want to make sure his head's going to be in the game. There's been a lot of gang activity the last few days and God forbid something happens, I need him to have my back," Oliver explained, looking more and more frazzled by the second.

Gail rarely saw Oliver like this. He was always so level-headed and calm. He looked genuinely concerned, so she decided to ease his worries.

"Hey, hey- I'll talk to him, alright? I'll make sure he's in the right state of mind," she assured him, resting a hand on his shoulder.

She looked up into his eyes and waited for him to nod his head before taking off to find Dov.

She wasn't sure why, but Oliver was one of the few people she had a soft spot for. Growing up in a home severely lacking parental presence and competency, Oliver had acted as a father figure Gail's entire time here at Division 15. She never wanted to let him down, and always hoped to make him proud.

She started rushing through the halls, trying desperately to find Dov before parade was to begin.

Turning a corner, she nearly mowed him down.

"WHOA!" he shouted, catching his balance and steadying himself by putting a hand on the wall. "What's the big rush?"

Gail was already annoyed by him. "I was looking for you. I'm here on business, not pleasure, so don't get excited. Oliver needs to know that you're going to be focused today."

Dov looked affronted, but behind the face, Gail could tell that her knew exactly what she was talking about. It was true, he had been off his game lately. He was having issues with Chloe and didn't really know how to deal with them, so he avoided her instead. His frustration with the whole situation had poured over into all facets of his life, and he knew he hadn't exactly been mentally present lately. He, however, decided to play dumb.

"Wh- what, uh.. what are you talking about?" he asked, feigning ignorance, but doing a very poor job.

Gail narrowed her eyes at him. He looked down and began fiddling with his fingers, clearly uncomfortable to be called out like this.

"Listen, I really don't care what's going on, I don't care that you're distracted most of the time, but I do care about Oliver, and you're not awful ALL of the time, so you need to be damn sure you can handle being out there today. I don't need either of you getting hurt," Gail warned.

With that, she turned on her heel and began to walk back toward the parade room, but somebody caught her arm.

Thinking it was Dov, she ripped her arm away. "Get the fu-" she began to say, before looking up and catching sight of who it really was.

"Swarek! Hi.. sorry about that. I thought you were someone else.." she trailed off, embarrassed by freaking out on the detective.

Eyebrows knitted and eyes narrowed, he stared at her for several long, uncomfortable seconds.

Gail shifted from foot to foot, waiting to hear what Sam had to say.

Finally he spoke. "You're not going to parade today, Peck. They just found a body down at the ravine and I need a couple uniforms down there."

"Okay. Yeah. I can do that," she said, still red in the face as a result of her little fit.

"Yeah when I say I need a couple uniforms down there, I mean now." He looked at her expectantly.

"Right. Yeah. Okay." She unnecessarily pointed down the hall in the direction she'd be moving as a way of announcing her departure.

Swarek gave her a tight-lipped smile and a quick nod of the head before heading in the opposite direction.

Feeling like an ass, Gail ran down the hallway and out to her squad car. She climbed in and hit the back of her head on the headrest several times. "Stupid, stupid," she muttered to herself like a mantra, "you almost assaulted a detective."

She grabbed her seatbelt, clicked it in, and followed orders to go down to the ravine.

When she got there, there were already a dozen people there. Most of them were medics, but Gail also spotted two other uniforms and a couple of civilians. She slammed the door to her car and made her way toward the group of medics, who she assumed were crowded around the body.

"Move it. Watch out," she demanded as she moved through the small cluster of people with all sorts of medical crap clutched in their hands. She wondered why they weren't actually _using_ these medical instruments, but she didn't have to wonder for long. Peering over two of the medics who were crouched next to the body, she discovered little more than the very last remains of what used to be a human body.

Her eyebrows shot up and her eyes widened. "Whoa.. dude's been dead awhile. Or was it a female? Where's the forensic pathologist?" She looked around for any sign of Dr. Herman, but saw no signs of the man.

"Uh, not here yet. We've got a new one, just started the job a couple days ago," Gail heard a voice say, not bothering to find out who it belonged to.

Gail rolled her eyes. "Oh great, we've got some incompetent fool tending to the very important dead bodies now. Can't even show up to the damn crime scene on time. Wonderful," she spat out with her usual bite. "Can't wait to meet him so I can tell him what I think of his tardiness."

"Ah! Our pathologist has arrived!" one of the other medic losers yelled out. Others cheered.

_Disgusting_, Gail thought, not bothering to turn around to see who it was. She was already annoyed by this guy taking his sweet ass time getting here, so she wasn't going to have the decency to introduce herself.

Now crouched over the body to take a closer look, Gail heard a third voice attempt to make introductions between her and the new pathologist.

"Doctor Stewart, this is Officer Peck, Officer Peck, Doctor Stewart- our new head forensic pathologist," the voice said.

Gail still didn't bother to turn around. She scanned the bones for any signs of trauma. Of course, this was a job much better handled by said pathologist, but the asshole had already managed to piss her off, so she felt no need to rely on him and his stupid doctoral education.

"I'm not sure introductions will be necessary," Gail heard an unfamiliar, yet somehow hauntingly familiar voice say. "Gail?"

Curiosity getting the best of her at the sound of that voice, surprisingly belonging to a woman, she finally stood slowly and turned to look at the person to which the voice belonged.

As soon as she did, her mouth went dry, her heart stopped, and she suddenly forgot how to speak.

After several moments, she managed to utter a single word.

"H-Holly?"

**Alright guys, lay it on me! Let me know what you think, what direction you think this ought to go in, etc. :) **


	8. Starting Over

"Yeah, its.. it's me," Holly stuttered out, shifting nervously from foot to foot.

Traci looked between them, confusion about the obvious tension etched across her face. "Wait, you two know each other?"

Gail peeled her eyes away from Holly's face and glanced at Traci before her eyes ultimately landed on the ground.

"Yeah, we, uh.. We were friends in high school for a little while," Gail explained, knowing that there was so much more behind it than that. She chanced a glance up at Holly, who was chewing on her bottom lip, arms crossed protectively over her chest. Looking up from her crossed arms, she met Holly's eyes with her own and was catapulted back ten years.

She was there, in a small clearing in the woods just off the property of her Aunt's camp. Holly was there, on top of her, kissing her- and she was kissing her back. Suddenly Holly wasn't there anymore. She was walking away and Gail's voice box had shut down. That was the last night that Gail had seen her or heard from her.

"Gail?" Traci said, her confusion about the situation turning to concern. This new pathologist's presence clearly had Gail out of sorts in a way she hadn't seen in quite some time.

"Wh-what?" Gail asked, shaking her head to clear it and snapping back to reality.

"Uhh.. I asked if you'd mind going to the morgue with Dr. Stewart here and waiting for any updates," Traci said slowly, looking between the two of them again. _What is going on?_ she thought, taking in the expressions of clear discomfort on both their faces.

"I guess not. That's fine. Yeah. I can do that," Gail managed to get out, still flustered. She turned on her heel to leave, but turned back around and addressed Holly. "I'll be waiting at the morgue, Dr. Stewart."

Holly winced at the formal title coming from the lips of someone she once considered a very close friend. Someone who she'd considered more than a friend, if she was being honest with herself. "That's fine. I'll be there soon, Officer Peck," she said to Gail's back as she stalked away.

Turning back to Traci, she decided to ignore the questioning looks being directed at her by the other woman. "So, what have we got here?" She advanced toward the body, trying and failing to put Gail out of her mind for what seemed like the billionth time.

* * *

_Why do these things always happen to me?_ Gail asked herself as she spun around in the swivel chair that sat in the middle of the morgue next to the examination table. _And why was that awkward? Why couldn't I function around her? It was one kiss ten years ago fueled by beer consumed by underage drinkers. It didn't even mean anything. _Gail's brain fired question after question, explanation after explanation, each one as much of a lie as the next.

"Having fun?" A voice interrupted Gail's thoughts, prompting her to put a foot down to stop the spinning of the chair.

Holly sauntered into the morgue with that lopsided grin on her face that Gail used to love so much. Chastising herself for these thoughts and feeling embarrassed at having been caught spinning in the chair like a child, Gail threw the first snarky comment at Holly that she could think of. "I'm about to be having a lot less fun now that you're here."

She looked to Holly to find any trace of the hurt she might have caused with this comment, but Holly continued to smile, her warm brown eyes dancing behind her glasses_. I guess some things never change_, Gail thought. She found it astonishing how much she remembered about the girl from a decade before. She remembered it like it was yesterday, remembered all of Holly's quirks and intricacies. Sensing that Holly could tell that she was reminiscing, she shot another rude comment toward her. "Is this body going to get here anytime soon? I can think of about a thousand other places I'd rather be right now."

Still, Holly smiled. Gail tried to tell herself that it bothered her, but she would always remember the way she loved that Holly was unfazed by her snappy comments. Not only was she not fazed, she was also quite good at thinking on her feet and handing it right back to Gail on a silver platter.

Soon after, the body, which was really just a whole bunch of bones, arrived and Holly got to work on it immediately. Gail found herself wondering whether Holly would bring up the history the two of them had, and explain what had happened all those years ago.

It soon became clear that it was going to go unaddressed, as Holly began to ask mundane questions about what Gail had been up to the last several years, how she liked working at 15, and about her family.

"My family?" Gail asked incredulously. "Ha! My family.. let's see. They're pretty much the same as they've always been."

Holly shifted uncomfortably at this statement; at this mention of a previous relationship between the two women. She was trying very hard to ignore the awkwardness in the air that was becoming ever-present. This movement didn't go unnoticed by Gail, and it only served to exacerbate the level of awkwardness.

Unsure as to what to do next, Holly simply bent back over the body and ignored Gail to the best of her ability.

Gail took this opportunity to look at Holly- to really look at her. She, of course, was still tall and thin, with her beautiful olive skin that tanned so well. No matter what the season, Holly always looked as though she had just been kissed by the sun. She still wore glasses, but the frames were different. Larger. Not in a geeky way, but in a sexy way. _What? Sexy? Jesus, Gail. You're not even gay._ For some reason, she felt the need to re-affirm the fact that she was straight.

"How long do you think this is going to take?" Gail asked, premeditating her next comment.

"As long as it takes. Why, got a hot date?" Holly asked, half-joking, half actually wanting to know the answer.

"Date? Yes. Hot? Hopefully. Mother keeps setting me up on blind dates with men she deems worthy. She couldn't be happier that I'm single now after dating my ex. She hated him," Gail explained, glad to have the chance to discuss her extremely straight sexuality. If she didn't know any better, she'd say that Holly's expression changed when she mention "men" and her "ex boyfriend." As soon as her expression changed however, it went back to being stoic, uninterested.

"Ah. I see. Well sorry if I'm keeping you," Holly began, but quickly changed directions. "Actually no I'm not, I'm going to take as long as I need to perform a thorough and proper autopsy."

Gail couldn't tell whether Holly was being jokingly cold, or whether she really was annoyed. After all these years, it was hard to tell. She used to know her so well. She used to know Holly better than Holly knew Holly. She found herself wanting to know Holly again, but sure as hell wasn't about to ask her to have a slumber party where they'd braid each other's hair and paint each other's nails.

"Actually yeah, take as long as you want. These guys my mother sets me up with are always losers, " Gail stated. Holly gave no response but a slight nod of the head.

Gail continued. "Not losers in that they're unaccomplished, no, Elaine Peck would never allow her daughter to date someone who wasn't career-obsessed. They're always higher-ups in the force, or lawyers, or doctors. Successful, but so painfully boring that I want to take my fork and knife and gouge my eyes out Oedipus style."

Holly barked out a laugh at this, finally giving Gail something to work with. She didn't know why, because she hated pretty much everybody she ever met, but it mattered to her that Holly liked her. Holly's feelings and thoughts towards her still mattered after all these years. Gail decided not to think about why, and simply basked in the glory of finally having earned a laugh from Holly.

"I wish I could stay the same, but I have no problem getting people from all walks of life to fall all over me," Holly said nonchalantly, still examining the body closely.

Taken off-guard, Gail simple sat there for a moment, not sure what to say. Normally, she'd say something snarky to knock her down a peg or two, but her brain conjured up nothing. It didn't conjure up a single comment because she believed it. She believed that Holly could attract people without even trying. "Yeah, well yay for you and your parade of awesome men with their awesome jobs and awesome salaries. Who knew men were attracted to nerds these days. Maybe that's why I can't find any valid suitors." Gail rolled her eyes and resumed her spinning in the swivel chair that now sat opposite Holly on the other side of the examination table.

Holly let out a small laugh, shaking her head. "Well I'm not sure about men, but it seems to work pretty well with the ladies."

Gail stopped dead mid-spin. _Ladies?_ Her stomach flipped, her heart rate sped up, and her brain went blank for several moments. She thought of nothing as she grabbed her coat, shrugged it on, and began to walk towards to lab door. She mumbled something about stretching her legs and disappeared without another word.

_Jesus, Gail who cares if she's gay? Who cares if she's interested in women? _she chastised herself.

But she cared. She cared a lot.

**A/N: Ahhhh! I'm deeply sorry for the update taking forever yet again. I want to start writing more often now that I think I'm finally (fingers crossed) getting over my month-long sickness. However, I'm stuck. I'm unsure where to take the story from here and I need your guys' help! Please! Comment with any suggestions/opinions if you wish. Thank you in advance. :)**


	9. A Familiar Feeling

A week later, they had finally made an arrest and received a full confession from the killer. Gail was exhausted, not having gotten any sleep since they began the investigation.

She arrived at the Penny and collapsed into a chair at an empty table, demanding that Dov get her some scotch and keep a drink in her hand all night.

"Yes ma'am," he said, grabbing Chloe's hand and dragging her to the bar with him. Gail watched them go, rolling her eyes at their cutesy antics and incessant public displays of affection.

If someone asked, Gail would insist that she despised PDA; that it was an overcompensation for people who aren't truly happy or secure enough in their relationships to not feel the need to show the world. The truth was that Gail only hated PDA when she didn't have anybody to make displays of affection with. She'd never admit it, even to herself, but she'd been lonely as of late, ever since the whole Nick and Andy fiasco had happened.

"For you, Miss Peck," Dov announced with an air of grandeur, brandishing the glass of scotch with exaggerated importance.

"Just give me the damn liquor, pipsqueak," Gail ordered, reaching for the glass which Dov was holding high over her head, holding it just within her reach before pulling it away again.

After trying unsuccessfully several times to grab hold of her drink, Gail gave up, her arms falling into her lap in defeat.

"Fine, fine," Dov relented, setting the drink gently on the table directly in front of Gail. She immediately brightened up, picking up the drink and taking a long sip. "That's the stuff," she stated, smacking her lips.

"Alright. Now that our favorite boozer is satisfied.. I declare.. drumroll please," Dov announced, pausing in between each part of the sentence for effect. Chloe and the newly arrived Chris began drumming their fingers on the edge of the table, Chloe looking more excited than a kid on Christmas. Gail simply sat there and continued sipping on her drink, nearly finished with it already. "...A trivia war!" Dov finished, throwing his arms out to the side and sporting an all too animated look on his face as if having just shared a piece of thrilling news.

"Woohoo! Yayyyyy!" Chloe cheered, clapping her hands together repeatedly. She flung her arms around Dov's neck and began what Gail could only describe as eating Dov's face.

Gail looked at Chris and rolled her eyes as he looked around awkwardly. She tipped her glass all the way up, draining every last possible drop of the strong liquor into her system.

"Okay, dork. Time to get me another drink," Gail informed Dov, pressing her glass into his side. When he didn't react, she tried again. "Earth to dweeb-a-tron, I command you to stop sucking face with your girlfriend and go fetch me another drink. A double this time."

Still, she received no response.

Chris piped up. "Uhh, I hate to break it to you, but once they start this, there's really no stopping it. Many a bro night has now been tarnished and encroached upon by Dov and Chloe makeout time." He shrugged and leaned back in his chair, placing his hands behind his head in preparation to wait until the two would come up for air.

"Fuuuuuuuuck," Gail muttered under her breath, pushing her chair away from the table and grudgingly making her way to the bar to get her own drink.

When she reached the bar, she slammed her empty glass down on the beer-covered laminated wood surface and buried her head in her hands. Half of her felt like just going home and going to sleep, but the other half wanted to get severely inebriated. The latter half won, as usual.

"Rough night?" A voice asked, stirring her from her pity party. She lifted her head to determine whether or not the voice was speaking to her.

It was.

There stood Holly, looking down at her with an expectant but friendly smile.

"Mm," Gail grunted in response, giving a quick nod of her head.

"Not talkative tonight, I see. Message received," Holly said, turning her head to the other side of the bar.

Soon, another voice crept into Gail's consciousness, disrupting her effort to ignore Holly.

"Hey beautiful, can I buy you a drink?" the voice said.

"Oh well that's very flattering, but no thank you." Holly's voice, Gail discerned.

"Oh come on, why not? We could have a real nice time together." The voice was quite obviously belonging to a man.

"Listen, I'm sure you're a nice guy, but I'm just not interested." Holly again, sounding somewhat nervous.

Gail's ears perked up when she heard the shuffling of bodies and Holly say "excuse me."

The man's voice sounded again. "You're such a pretty little thing, I'd hate to see you go without finding out where this night could take us. Your place or mine?"

Gail looked up in just enough time to see the man shove his hand against Holly's chest as she attempted to pass him. Before she even had time to think, Gail jumped up out of her chair, yanked one of the man's arms behind him, and slammed him over the top of the bar, bashing his head into it in the process.

"Are you deaf? She said she wasn't interested," Gail growled into his ear, yanking his arm further behind his back as violently as possible.

"What the fuck is your problem? You jealous? You wanna join blondie?" the man laughed, licking his lips and wiggling his eyebrows at Gail.

She swiftly picked his head up off the bar by his hair and promptly slammed it back down against the hard wooden surface.

"Ow! What the-" he protested, struggling futilely against Gail's vice grip.

"The only place I'm going to join you is the police station if you don't shut the hell up and leave this bar in the next ten seconds. Do you understand me?" She said each word slowly, being sure that he understood that she was not to be messed with.

After struggling for a few more moments, the man stood still, his body still bent over the bar, Gail pressed into his back.

"Whatever. Just get your hands off of me."

"Then keep your hands off of her. Off of any woman, for that matter. Or I promise you I will be your worst nightmare," she snarled at him, finally lifting his torso off of the bar and shoving him toward the door.

She watched him the whole way, turning back to Holly only after she saw the door close behind him.

Holly's eyes were wide. There was something else beneath the surprise, but Gail couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. Adoration? Gratitude?

The situation finally sinking in, Gail became embarrassed at the level of intensity with which she defended Holly. Uncomfortable, she muttered something about him being an asshole, not wanting to draw any more attention to what had just taken place.

"Thank you, Gail," Holly said simply, sensing that Gail didn't want her to make a big deal out of it.

"It's my job to protect the citizens of Toronto. Don't worry about it," Gail stated, making it clear that this was the end of the conversation.

Holly didn't speak another word, but nodded and brushed gently past Gail, placing a soft kiss on her cheek as she went. This reminded Gail of something, and she stopped Holly, grabbing her elbow.

"Why didn't you just tell him that you're gay?" Gail asked, feeling as though that was a sure fire way to get some creep to stop hitting on you.

"I've learned that you should never make too big a show of your being gay. Especially with guys like that," Holly stated, not meeting Gail's eyes. Sensing that Gail wanted her to elaborate, she continued. "Some men don't take very kindly to a woman preferring another woman over them. They take it as a personal attack on their masculinity, and they do something to affirm that masculinity. Sometimes it's more persistent advances.. sometimes it's worse than that."

Holly looked sad, and Gail found herself wondering what had happened to Holly in the past to make her feel like she wasn't safe expressing her sexuality in public. She wondered but didn't dare ask.

Wanting to say something in response to this confession but coming up short, Gail nodded and reached for Holly's hand, squeezing it in a comforting gesture. At the touch, a shock went up Gail's arm and radiated out through her entire body. She felt her heart rate increase slightly and immediately dropped Holly's hand.

"I, uh. I gotta go. My friends and I are- are doing trivia or something," Gail stuttered, suddenly nervous but not entirely sure why.

"Right, yeah." Holly awkwardly looked down at her feet, kicking at discarded beer bottle tops on the floor.

Gail didn't want Holly to go. She wanted to spend more time with her. She wanted to get to know her again. High school Holly wasn't who she was anymore, and she suspected that adult Holly was even more amazing than teenage Holly had been. She committed right then and there to finding out.

"Do you, uh, want to join us? It's just me and a few of my extremely dorky, extremely lame friends. You'd probably fit right in," Gail said, lighting shoving Holly's arm to show that she was just teasing her. She could feel herself blushing and she hated it.

Holly smiled that trademark lopsided half-smile and arranged her features into an expression of regret. "I wish I could, but I can't. I'm kind of.. on a.. on a date," she finished, not seeming to want to admit that she was seeing someone.

Gail's stomach twisted itself in a knot, and she hated herself for reacting this way. It's not like she was being rejected. She wasn't asking Holly out. She just wanted to be her friend. That's it. Yup. That was all. Absolutely the only thing she was interested in. She most certainly was not interested in Holly in any way other than friendship. Nope.

The tightening of her stomach as Holly turned and walked away told her otherwise.

Her incessant monitoring of Holly and her date's whereabouts told her otherwise.

Her undeniable jealousy when she watched Holly laugh at something her date said told her otherwise.

And her constant replaying in her head of the kiss that they shared ten years ago DEFINITELY told her otherwise.

**A/N: I know this chapter is still on the shorter side, but I wanted to get you a more speedy update than what I've been giving you for the last few chapters. Please share your thoughts and opinions. (Most of them) make me smile! :)**


	10. Cat and Mouse

**Chapter 10 has landed! I am overwhelmed by the positive response to this story and would like to thank each and every person who has followed, favorited, or reviewed it! I sincerely appreciate all the feedback and hope that there is more on the way! **

**I'd like to give a special thanks to Rose42095 for getting my butt in gear to finally finish and post this chapter and I'd also like to wish them a very happy birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day and I hope that this chapter puts a smile on your face and makes your birthday just a bit more special. :)**

**Without further ado, here it is:**

The next morning, Gail lay awake in bed staring at the ceiling, hands tucked beneath her head. She needed coffee, desperately, but was too lazy to actually get out of bed, so she had no choice but to go without. She replayed last night in her head.

The rest of the night had passed slowly, Dov and Chloe taking turns reading and answering dumb questions that only losers knew the answers to long after she and Chris had lost interest. They'd stayed long into the night tossing back drink after toxic drink, awaiting the time when the two dorks would finally be through with their dumb trivia championship game. Had they not been Gail's ride home, she would have been out of there a long time ago.

Snappier and more icy than she usually was, Gail shot insults at them for hours, however unaffected they were by them. She had long since discovered that this was something she used as a defense mechanism when there was something far more concerning on her mind that was threatening to break through the carefully sealed cracks in her badass bitch persona. She decided to ignore this knowledge as she tried to get her short interaction with Holly out of her mind.

She chastised herself repeatedly for reacting so violently to Holly's being harassed by that creep, and for in turn making it clear that she actually cared about her. After all these years, she still cared about a woman who by most definitions was essentially a stranger to her. She didn't know her. She didn't know what had transpired in Holly's life since they parted ways years back. Remembering that she'd committed to becoming Holly's friend (yes, just friend, Gail) earlier that day, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and began typing out a message to Traci, who she knew was working late.

**G:** Trace- I need you to do me a favor.

**T:** Hm. Depends. What do I get in return?

**G:** I'll allow you to continue dating my brother.

**T:** Uhh.. Yeah, you really don't have any say in that, Gail.

**G:** Okay, fine. Then in return, I will not divulge the story of you on St. Patrick's Day two years ago to Steve.

**T:** Done. What do you need?

**G:** I need you to look up the cell phone number of Doctor Stewart.

**T:** The new forensic pathologist? Why?

**G:** My fingers are just itching to type out a text to Steve right now.. Boy do I miss my brother.

**T:** Okay, okay, no questions. Gimme a sec.

Gail smiled triumphantly at her phone, admiring herself for knowing how to get what she wanted when she wanted it.

A few moments later, her text tone sounded, and she was embarrassed by the speed with which she snatched her phone up off the table and read it.

**T:** +1 416-598-2476

**G:** Pleasure doing business with you, Miss Nash.

**T:** Yeah, yeah.

Hurriedly typing the number into her phone and adding it to her contacts, she began to type out a text to Holly.

**G:** Hey I was wondering if maybe you wanted to-

_Stupid. _

**G:** We should catch up someti-

_Nope. _

**G:** So I was thinking that maybe we cou-

_Fuck. _

Why did she even care? She didn't, she told herself, typing out a poorly thought-out text to prove it to herself.

Across town, Holly's phone buzzed against the coffee table where it sat. If Gail had been able to see her, she would have seen her eyebrows knitted together in confusion and a slight look of amusement.

**G:** So what have you been up to recently?

**H:** That depends on who this is. If it's a serial killer, I can't tell you.

Gail laughed out loud. Literally out loud, without any reservations, attracting weird looks from the few people left at the Penny. After shooting them all icy glares, Gail looked back to her phone. After the initial hilarity of Holly's response, Gail slapped herself on the forehead.

_Idiot_, she thought to herself. How the hell would Holly know who it was? It's not like Holly had the same phone number that she did years ago. That was abundantly clear when the line had been disconnected, leaving Gail very limited options for contact.

Backtracking but trying to redeem herself, she sent another text, this one very well thought-out.

**G:** It's embarrassing for you that you don't have my number. Only the coolest people have it. Now that I've texted you, you've become instantly cooler. You're welcome.

**H:** Hi, Gail.

Some things would never change.

**G:** You didn't answer my question.

**H:** You mean about what I've been up to? Well, I've been up to a lot. Many things can happen over the course of ten years.

**G:** I guess so. The only thing that's happened to me was becoming even more intelligent, more awesome, and more sexy.

**H:** Right. Are you saying you'd like to catch up Gail?

**G:** You want to catch up? If you insist. I'll meet you at the Penny tomorrow after work. Seven o'clock.

**H:** Whatever you say, Gail. I'll see you tomorrow at seven. Goodnight.

Gail began to type out a goodnight text, but thought better of it and tucked her phone safely into the pocket of her skin-tight jeans, slouching in her seat for the next hour before King and Queen Loser would finally call it quits for the trivia night.

* * *

Now here she lay the following morning, unsure about her decision to set up a meeting time and place to see Holly. She did still want to catch up with her, but she had her reservations about _why_. She never cared to see or speak to anyone, really. Not even those she considered to be her closest friends. Yet here she was, desperately trying to reconnect with someone she knew when she was a kid.

She briefly considered blowing her off and just not going, before she pushed this thought out of her mind, knowing that doing so would be the same as when Holly ran out on her all those years ago.

Set on going, she grabbed her duffel bag and began packing an outfit to change into after her shift before she would head over to the bar to meet Holly.

This was going to be a long day.

And a long day it was. After first being paired up with Chloe Never-Shuts-The-Hell-Up Price and having to listen to her incessant high-pitched cheery chatter about Dov and how great he was, she then had a run-in with Andy at the station.

She listened to her ramble about how she wished they could still be friends and how sorry she was that Gail was upset (all the while never actually apologizing for stealing her boyfriend) for about twenty seconds before pushing past her without a single word, shoulder checking her for good measure.

At long last, she was safely in the locker room without another soul around. She stood in front of her locker for several minutes, standing still, still having no idea why she wanted to see Holly in the first place. Well, aside from the fact that she was nice to look at. _No, Gail. Bad. Knock it off_.

Frustrated, she banged her head into her locker door several times before opening it and quickly changing into the outfit she had brought. Twenty minutes and about nine thousand peeks at her reflection later, Gail hailed a cab and was off to the bar.

When she arrived, she scanned the room quickly for Holly. When she didn't see her, she made her way up to the bar, ordering a rum and coke.

"Make that two," she heard a voice say a few seats down the bar.

She glanced at the woman, who had dark hair and beautifully tanned skin just like-

"Holly?!" Gail exclaimed, realizing that this gorgeous woman was in fact the very woman for whom she'd been waiting.

Gail gaped at her unabashedly. She looked.. flawless. She wore a pair of black leather pants with strappy heels and a sheer red top the clung to her toned figure. Her hair cascaded in loose curls around her face, which was free of glasses tonight. Her top hung off of one shoulder, allowing her collarbone to stand out against the rest of her olive skin. It sat low enough on her chest that you could see the beginnings of her boobs, and Gail found herself wondering if Holly had made this extra effort for her.

_Well if she did, she succeeded_, Gail thought.

When Gail's gaze finally landed on Holly's eyes, she found that Holly was looking her up and down.

She didn't look too bad either. Her hair was pulled back but bumped up in the front. Her eyes popped out from behind black makeup, accentuating their crystal blue color. A plain white t-shirt covered her torso, one that left little to the imagination when it came to her chest. A black leather jacket was worn over the top of it, with skin tight black jeans (_were they painted on her?_ Holly marveled) and black leather combat boots.

Always oozing confidence, Gail smirked when she noticed Holly checking her out. "You like what you see?"

Holly pushed her chest out a little bit. "Do you?" she challenged Gail.

Loving that Holly still had it in her to bite back at Gail just as hard as she'd bitten her, Gail bit her bottom lip but said nothing. She wasn't sure why, but she was loving this flirtatious banter. It wasn't that she was attracted to women, necessarily. No, no, it was that it was becoming more clear that she was attracted to Holly. That she was still attracted to Holly after all this time.

Holly let out a laugh. Gail could insist on her heterosexuality all she wanted, but she knew that she had some sort of effect on the gorgeous blond. "So Gail, what's your story? I see you ended up going through with the continuation of the Peck dynasty," she began, sipping the drink that had just been placed in from of her.

Gail rolled her eyes. "Don't ever call it that again. But yes, I did decide to go into police work. I guess when something is engrained in you since birth, it's kind of hard to not want to do that thing with your life. What about you? You always were a nerd. Glad to see nothing's changed."

Holly laughed again, shaking her head, causing her curls to swing back and forth. Gail realized that she loved hearing Holly's laugh, and she hated herself for it.

"Ahh, yes. I had decided on forensics not long after high school and ended up going all the way to get my M.D." Holly crossed her legs and turned her body directly toward Gail, looking very sexy atop her barstool. "I just love the idea of giving people a voice even after they're dead.. of looking at a body and discovering all these things about someone based on something found on their bones or in their bloodstream or-" Holly blushed, realizing that her geekiness was becoming more prominent by the second.

Gail smiled, let out a small laugh, and urged Holly to continue. She liked listening to the brunette talk. She liked to watch her lips move, to watch her hands wave frantically when she got excited about something. It was undeniably adorable.

After a long-winded discussion about why and how Holly had gotten to where she is today, Gail decided to ask a question that she had been wanting to ask since she first found out that Holly was gay.

She fiddled with her keys and then grabbed her drink and swished it around needlessly before finally throwing caution to the wind. "So like, when you say that you're gay.." she began, not really asking what she'd wanted to ask. She opened her mouth several times to continue, but couldn't string together a coherent sentence in her mind.

"I mean that I sleep with women." Holly stated, as though she were saying that the sky was blue.

Gail spit out the sip she had just taken, slapping her hands over her ears. "Ahhhh! My virgin ears!" Gail screamed, dramatically rocking back and forth in panic.

Holly laughed at the ridiculous display in front of her, and remembered why she had fallen for Gail when they were in high school. Gail never cared what anybody thought of her. She would make a fool out of herself a hundred times and not care who was watching. That was something that Holly had never managed; she always cared about what people would think or say.

"Ha! Yeah right. Nothing about you is virgin." Holly said, looking Gail dead in the eye.

Gail could swear that there was a flirtatious sparkle in her eyes, but decided not to dwell on it. They were just having fun, just as they always had.

Gail stared her down for several seconds before seemingly giving up and letting out a long, exaggerated sigh. "You're right. The men can't keep their hands off of me. I've got to beat them back with a stick." She arranged her features into a look of pure agony, as though this issue of having men all over her was an unbearable curse with which she struggled on an everyday basis.

"And the women?" Holly asked, her voice dropping lower and her eyebrow arching in flirtatious curiosity.

Never one to be stopped dead in her tracks but having absolutely no idea what to say in response to the brunette, Gail floundered for just a moment before standing up, turning her back on Holly, and bending over slowly, pretending to fix the zipper on her boot.

She stood back up just as slowly and began to strut away, swaying her hips as she went.

"I guess we'll see," she tossed over her shoulder before making her way out the door and into the cold night air, knowing that Holly would eventually follow.

Holly sat there for several moments, mouth agape, before shaking herself out of it. She got the feeling that she and Gail had been playing a never-ending game of cat and mouse since they were in high school, but couldn't quite figure out who played which part. Holly was determined to be the mouse. She wanted to be chased, and she was going to make damn sure that Gail would chase her.

She grabbed her keys and vowed that this would be the last time she would follow Gail.

Yes, from now on, Gail would definitely be the cat.

**A/N: As always, reviews are welcomed and very much appreciated!**


End file.
